At the outbreak of the War, Smithland was a small community, but its strategic location made it essential to Union operations in the lower South. In March 1863, Federal forces in Smithland constructed this building as a warehouse for the Commissary Department, which was responsible for feeding the Army. In 1863, an anonymous commissary officer explained that each soldier received a daily ration that included beef, pork, bacon, flour, hard bread, cornmeal, coffee, sugar, beans, peas, rice, hominy, molasses, vinegar, soap, candles, and desiccated vegetables such as dried potatoes used to help prevent scurvy. A day's subsistence for one man averaged 3 pounds in bulk, and each ration, including transportation, cost about 20 cents. The Chief Commissary supplied corps commissaries, which supplied division commissaries, then brigade and regimental officers, before rations were distributed by company and divided among the messes. Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General of the United States Army with the rank of brigadier general, headed the department that provided armies in the field with nearly all other supplies, including transportation by railroad, wagon, and ship, along with clothing, camp and garrison equipment, horses, fuel, forage, bedding materials, stationery, and oversight of the Military Telegraph Corps. Because all Army food was purchased by contract, the scale of the operation required many men and extensive space for storage, processing, and shipment to troops in the field. During the War the building also served as a hospital, and after the war it was used as a Masonic Hall. The First Baptist Church also met here from 1687-1913. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.